Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Why does there appear to be zero resale value in Meridian?

I am an ardent fan of Meridian and still believe the sound quality of their 15 year old technology is stunning. At the same time I am disappointed that the company's innovation fervor has been in decline for years.With that being said, I believe there are a few primary reasons for the dramatic drop in resale for Meridian equipment.

1. It is a luxury brand with luxury margins. Original owners often have to overpay for Luxury items and those same items often plummet in value over time. Think about a BMW 7 series. To buy one new you would spend nearly 90k but you can find it used for 6k (2003 model). That is 6% of the original cost. Think about an 861v4. New it was 20k in 2003 and now resales for 1500-2k. At least you are getting 7.5% of the original value.

2. Meridian has not kept up with on the technology trends in the industry (home theater at least). While way ahead of the curve in it's hay-day. For example, the surround processor line's inability to decode DolbyTRUE HD is insane. The "next gen" format was released in 2006 and is based on MLP which was developed by Meridian for DVDAudio. I realize the HD621 can process PCM audio at equal resolutions but this workaround is becoming increasing cumbersome with the improvement of streaming content audio and formats. For example, you have to resort to Dolby Digital output on an Amazon Firestick because the DolbyPlus format is not supported and the device does not decode streams to PCM. These are formats that have had wide spread adoption for nearly 15 years. Don't even get me started on spacial surround formats like Atmos.

3. Digital products are the worst to invest in, thanks Moores Law. Because digital technology is always improving by leaps and bounds what once was available to only the most committed audiophiles can now be bought for pennies on the dollar. Every year there is a new innovation, new resolution, and another "veil" lifted from digital playback. Meridian has been the digital leader for decades but now the others are catching up, if not surpassing them.

4. Proprietary technology. Both a blessing and a curse. For system cohesion this can be a win. A fully digital system is amazing but a lot of specialized parts and pieces that don't play well with others can complicate the resale of an item outside of it's own ecosystem. The fact that I can't stream from my phone or other device directly to a pair of DSP speakers without a bunch of other equipment is counterintuitive in 2020.

Not meant to be argumentative , just my 2¢

Nick

You've got it all!
I'm a fan of older Meridian products. Personally, I would love to see Meridian bringing back some of their older products. Yeah, It may not make much business sense, but look at 3/5a , ProAc, Vitavox….
Well, hope Meridian will find its way in the new digital age!

Sorry to do this, but back on topic for a minute...
I love M kit and have had plenty of it over the years. None of it has ever been bought brand new though. Second hand values may not be the strongest, but that's not an issue if you bought it secondhand in the first place. Nor is it an issue if your kit sounds fantastic and you don't want to sell. The only time it's an issue is when you paid full price and want to move it on. Some people can obviously afford to take that hit (lucky them) and others can't, but once you know something looses a large percentage of it's value once a year or two old you at least know what you're in for.

Someone used the high end car analogy earlier and it's a good one, 7 series BMW resale values are probably a good indicator of the kind of depreciation you can expect from some Meridian kit.

I just seek out the best value kit I can and enjoy it. Does this help M as a company. Well, I might need repairs or upgrades but more importantly it allows others to move on their old kit and buy new. The very very nice chap I bought my DSP7200 speakers from, was selling them to part fund his 8k purchase, so it all plays a part in keeping M in business. I'm sure putting speakers in cars is far more profitable anyway

BB Wan,

You summarised it perfectly !

I started my long journey acquiring second hand Meridian kit, but I have also bought new items over the journey too. I have 3 sons that have grown up listening to Meridian their whole lives and as a consequence, I am still yet to sell a single Meridian item because most of it will all be passed on to them.

If you don't ever sell what you buy, and enjoy continued quality use from it, then there is no financial loss to consider. However, I really do need to move on some of my 500 series kit that is sitting idle so someone else much younger than me can start their own Meridian journey.

Cheers,
Steve M

My Kef' R that MSRP at $3500 had a used resale of $1250! Didn't matter if it was a week old or a year old. My Beethoven's were the same story. I got them for 30% off and still lost 50% selling them used.
I think it was already suggested that Meridian doesn't integrate with other brands seriously shrinks their market. The woofers and mids in the DSP floorstanding speakers were sota 20-25 years ago.
Personally I'm thrilled I can own the speakers I dreamed about, but read a review about the new materials going into current drivers and it just makes our stuff look dusty.

You are indeed very fortunate to have those 8000SEs!

I think Meridian [with software, good design and DSP] have done a fantastic job of squeezing the best performance out of those old 'dusty' drivers. Even my DSP6000s at nearly 30 years old, sound incredible and stunning after a re-cap.

On one hand, it's a shame how little they are worth for a seller, but on the other, a great bargain to be had for the buyer.

Don’t worry about the age, after listening to MI’s 60+ year old Quad ESL57s it made me realise just how bad those old fashioned cone in a box ‘speakers are...

It doesn't strike me as odd that aging equipment drops dramatically in price with each passing decade. As an example - Arri Alexa cameras are now *affordable* for most independent DPs/ops. Why would original Arri owners be mad at resale? That camera has made them their money back.

And so with a Meridian system are we really expecting a slow decrease in value over 30 years? Does anyone in their right mind expect them to *gain* value? If you can't get the money you want for it... keep it. This sounds like the guy with the rusty jalopy in his backyard posting on craigslist "I know what I have". If the goal is to sell for as little loss as possible - consumer electronics is not the realm to speculate in.

I paid £300 for my LP12 and £175 for the Ittok Arm in the 90's; have you seen the price of those on eBay...

...and I paid £39 for my SME3009 in 1974 (in storage).

When I worked in a University back in the early 90's, they threw out a Garrad 301 and a 401, both with SME3009 II arms...

I 'saved' them and sold them on to a 2nd hand Hi-Fi dealer off the Edgware road; I didn't get much for them, about 5 years before they came back into fashion and look at the prices now...!

My Brother has 2 x Garrard 401’s in storage.